This collection seeks to advance understanding of the shifting character and salience of ethnicity by abandoning the debate between the assimilationist and the cultural pluralist. The case studies presented define culture as a flexible tool, ethnicity as a complex and variable phenomenon, and social actors as knowledgeable agents who make their own history

"In his book, Dag Blanck analyzes how Swedish American identity was constructed, maintained, and changed in the Augustana Synod from 1860 to 1917. The author poses three fundamental questions: How did an ethnic identity develop in the Augustana synod? Of what did that ethnic identity consist? Why did that ethnic identity come into being?" "[summary]"--Provided by publisher